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Most shoe influencer marketing advice stops at "work with micro-influencers" and "be authentic". We wanted to see what the biggest shoe brands actually do, so we pulled the 50 most recent sponsored posts for each of the most-searched shoe brands in the US and looked at who posted, how each deal was disclosed, and which posts took off.
Here's why shoe brands work with creators, the commonalities in their strategy, and a step-by-step way to run your own campaign.
Creators do a few things for shoe brands that ads and product pages can't:
These are the most-searched shoe brands in the US, according to Ahrefs. Deal types show how each post was disclosed (for example, with a paid partnership label or an ambassador hashtag). Creator tiers: micro 10k–50k followers, mid-tier 50k–500k, macro 500k+.
| Brand | What they sell | Most common deal type | Typical creator size | Signature tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Balance | Running shoes and lifestyle sneakers | Paid | Micro to mid-tier | Everyday runners posting each new running shoe |
| Adidas | Sportswear, sneakers and streetwear | Paid | Mid-tier | Fitness creators announcing their new sponsorships |
| Nike | Sneakers, sportswear and gear | Paid | Mid-tier | A sneaker reviewer posting on an affiliate link |
| Crocs | Clogs, sandals and Jibbitz charms | Paid | Mid-tier | Licensed collab drops tied to fan events |
| Birkenstock | Sandals, clogs and footbed shoes | Paid | Mid-tier | Fall styling posts for one new clog |
13 of New Balance's last 49 sponsored posts are about running, from a sponsored Brooklyn Half to a 5k with a Berlin run club and a 92 km relay. 7 belong to its Grey Days campaign, 3 of them made with Zalando in Germany. Its creators are mostly in Europe, led by Germany (8), the UK (5) and Portugal (4), with only 4 in the US, and only one post includes a code.
What to take from it: Book everyday runners and keep sending them new pairs. A runner with 18k followers posted three times for New Balance, and his Grey Days run in the Rebel v5 got 149k plays, more than eight times his following.
5 of Adidas' last 50 sponsored posts are creators announcing a new deal with the brand, like a strength athlete who is "now officially sponsored by adidas" and a runner partnering with Adidas Running for the Berlin Marathon. Two of those posts came from the same creator, three days apart. 30 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships and 12 have no label. Its creators are spread across 13 countries, and none of the posts use a discount code.
What to take from it: When you sign a creator, let them announce it in their own words. @stellmeastory's post about finally being seen by her dream brand got 14.7k plays and 699 likes, about 1% of her 65k followers.
8 of Nike's last 50 sponsored posts were labeled as affiliate posts, and 7 came from one sneaker reviewer, @stevenatto, who posted reviews, rankings and on-feet videos of mostly basketball shoes in a single week, each pointing to a link to buy from Nike. Another 6 posts came from one creator in Spain styling Air Force 1s and Skylon 11s. Its creators are based in the US (13), the UK (5) and Germany (3), and none of the posts use a discount code.
What to take from it: Give sneaker reviewers an affiliate link and let them post as often as they like. @stevenatto's "Trying the Nike Ja 4 Nightmare" got 196k plays and 12.8k likes, the best of his seven posts that week.
6 of Crocs' last 50 sponsored posts tie its clogs to a licensed collab: a Disney and Pixar Cars clog sold only at the D23 fan event (3 posts), Super Mario pairs with Nintendo (2) and Lego Ninjago clogs. Its most-viewed post came from India, where a creator with 30.7M followers posted for its monsoon campaign and got 15.5M plays. Its creators are based in the US (21), India (4) and France (3), and only one post includes a code.
What to take from it: Tie a limited drop to an event your fans are already going to. @laurynsquyres, with 116k followers, cruising in the Cars clog sold only at D23 got 3.9M plays and 270k likes, more than double her following in likes alone.
8 of Birkenstock's last 50 sponsored posts introduce the Amsterdam clog, and 11 pitch its shoes for fall, even though most went live in August. It's also the brand of the five that rebooks the most: 12 of its 38 creators posted twice. 42 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, 20 of its creators are in the US, and none of the posts use a code.
What to take from it: Start seasonal posts before the season does. @omgessin's "getting ready for fall with my new amsterdam clogs", posted on August 3, got 323k plays and 11k likes.
Looking across all 249 posts, four patterns stand out:
Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top shoe brands do at each stage.
Decide what the campaign is for before you pick a single creator, because the goal changes who you book, how you pay them and what you ask them to post. The top shoe brands' posts show both goals at work. Nike's affiliate sneaker reviews and Crocs' D23-only clog are built to drive sales that week. New Balance's Grey Days posts and Birkenstock's fall styling are built for reach.
Pick one metric per campaign so you can compare creators fairly afterwards.
Follower count is the last thing to filter on. A trail runner with 23k followers filming a run through dried-up riverbeds in his backyard in Nike's Pegasus Trail got 1.8M plays, 78 times his following, on the kind of trail the shoe is built for. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got more than twice the likes relative to their audience.
Our survey found niche micro-creators are outperforming mega-influencers: nearly 60% of marketers said niche influencers performed better in 2025 than in 2024.
You can also find shoe influencers for free, for example by searching the hashtags your buyers follow.
Paid posts lead in shoes. Birkenstock disclosed 42 of its last 50 posts as paid partnerships and Nike 37. Nike is the only brand with a real affiliate presence (8 posts), and New Balance and Crocs each had 8 gifted posts.
Commission-only is getting harder to sell, though. Over 23% of marketers in our survey said creators would take performance pay only if a flat fee came with it. If you run tiers, the average commission tiers in our affiliate research were 10%, 14% and 19%, and brands with more than one tier had more active affiliates.
The captions from the top shoe brands point to three formats that carry most of their creator content:
Whatever the format, give creators one hashtag to use every time, like #crocspartner or #teamnike, and ask them to name the exact model and colorway.
The top shoe brands barely use codes: only 2 of the 249 posts include one. They send followers to links instead, and 15 posts ask followers to comment to get one.
Codes also leak. In our affiliate marketing research, 47.6% of marketers said they struggle with code poaching, where a creator's code ends up on coupon sites.
In Modash, each creator gets a tracked link and a code tied to your Shopify data, so sales from DMs, bios and stories all count toward the right person. Commission is calculated on net revenue after refunds and returns.
Most of the top shoe brands rarely rebook: only 27 of their 210 creators posted more than once. Birkenstock is the exception, with 12 of its 38 creators posting twice. Rebooking matters for shoes, where a creator still wearing the same pair months later is the best proof it lasts.
Most marketers want to do more of this. In our influencer marketing trends survey, over 60% said they plan to invest more in long-term partnerships, but only 54% actually ran more of them last year.
The top brands avoid a few mistakes that trip up smaller programs:
It depends on platform, following and engagement. Micro-influencers often work for free product plus a fee in the low hundreds per post, or an affiliate commission. Larger creators charge more. Many brands start with gifting plus commission to test fit before committing to flat fees. To estimate what a specific creator is likely to charge, drop their handle into our free Instagram influencer pricing calculator.
Instagram carries most shoe creator work, and every sponsored post we analyzed for the five most-searched shoe brands ran there. TikTok is worth testing too: in our survey, marketers rated TikTok videos the highest-performing deliverable (53.2%).
New Balance, Adidas, Nike, Crocs and Birkenstock are the most-searched shoe brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.
It depends on your goal. A launch chasing awareness leans bigger, a conversion play leans smaller and more trusted. In the shoe posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got more than twice the likes relative to their audience size, so most brands should build their base with micro-influencers (10k–50k followers) and add bigger names for launches.
Track sales per creator with unique links and codes, then compare revenue against what you paid (fees, product and commission). Our engagement rate calculator and fake follower checker help you vet creators before you spend, and our guide to influencer marketing ROI covers the full calculation.
Find creators, manage relationships, pay them in 180+ countries and 36 currencies, and track every sale through Shopify – all in one place, with no fees taken out of creators' pay. Try Modash free, no credit card required – or browse the top shoe influencers to see who's already out there.